


Riders of Styria

by toogaytofunction



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Banshee!Perry, Brotp, F/F, Minor Character Death, OTP Feels, Other, Slow Burn, Werewolf!Danny, dragon rider au, dragon!Laura
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-09
Updated: 2015-07-09
Packaged: 2018-04-08 13:23:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4306677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toogaytofunction/pseuds/toogaytofunction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Styria has a bit of a dragon 'infestation', that Carmilla and her dragon rider pals have been trying to help take care of in the most humane way possible. Everything was going according to plan until a particularly stubborn dragon-hybrid storms her way into their lives to take care of the dragons her own way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Based off the dragon party from tumblr and twitter to celebrate the start of season 2! (Somebody had to do it)

Prologue:

Styria has often been mistaken for a quiet town, even with a college campus just outside it’s limits. The townspeople, generally, get along and when the college kids look for parties on Friday nights, they usually go elsewhere. But to say Styria was a sleepy little town would be a complete overlook of the real excitement within.

Deep in the Styria forests, dragons from all across the globe have made a safe haven in these mysterious woods. What’s drawing then there, is still unknown. Some believe it’s the collective power of the supernatural beings who call Styria home. Other believe it’s a whole different beast, entirely. But whatever it is, it has caused a lot of debate over Styria new inhabitants. 

No one seems to know what to do with the dragons. On one hand, many of the species are endangered and their numbers are decreasing at alarming rates. On the other hand, the dragons are completely destructive, as is their nature. When they aren’t destroying parts of the forest to fit their needs, some move too close to the town itself and destroy property. 

It’s about an even split between the townspeople who would like to get rid of the beasts and those who believe they should stay. The citizens decide even further within those groups l, as well. They are torn between trying to send the dragons back to their places of origin, or should they “eradicate” them and save everyone the time and money. As for those who would rather they stay, most only want them for commodity. Dragon skins, horns, and claws go for a lot of money on the black market. Dragon eggs and hatchling go for a lot more.

Some actually do want to help the dragons. Mostly, Styria younger generations. They want to build habitats for them, train them, and tame them for pets, protection, sport, or even rerelease. As long as they aren’t causing destruction, they aren’t a problem. Since there are no official laws on the subject, for now it’s to each their own. 

Many of the older townspeople don’t talk about it. It has become as taboo as asking someone’s religion or political affiliation on the first date. With little help from their elder, the ‘under thirty’ crowd has decided to take things into their own hands. While many are protesting to get legislation for the dragons protection, a few groups have come together to build training camps in the wilderness. There are ten in total, so far. Most were large, state of the art facilities (funded by inheritance and trust funds), and then there was Camp Hastur. It was no more than a glorified club house in comparison to the others. Wooden gates, iron containments, three compartments protruding from the sides and back of the open layout that were supposed to take care of training the older dragons, housing the hatchling and providing a home for the trainers. Right in the middle was a two person observation deck/lab. The Camp wasn’t incredibly efficient, or pleasing to the eye, but what it lacked in architectural aesthetic is made up for with the amount of heart and passion this team of trainers put into their dragons.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Soaring high above the Syrian forest is a majestic red wyvern and its vampire rider, Carmilla. She pulls hard on his reigns.

“Ohen, slow down! We’re supposed to be on patrol, remember?”

The dragon slows his speed only marginally. Carmilla knocks her boot into Ohen side and he slows down more significantly, but not without a rebellious groan. Carmilla chuckles.

“Tell you what. If we don’t find anything, we can take the long way back home”.

Ohen roars with delight as he flies closer down to the top of the trees. Carmilla looks around the forest trying to find injured dragons or new dragons needing to be trained. All she sees are dragons she’s become familiar with, a lot that she has trained herself. All of them seemed to be living peacefully, some even looking for shelter for their new hatchlings. In the distance she can see a drake and a winchester fighting. Before Carmilla even gives a command, Ohen is already heading over to a tree near the commotion to hide behind.

“Easy, boy. No sudden movements”.

Carmilla and Ohen watch as the dragons continued to battle. Carmilla tries to determine if this is just playful sparring or was this a battle of dominance. The drake stands on its powerful hind legs and that answers the question.

Carmilla quickly leads Ohen from being the tree. Before the drake has a chance to strike , she gives her command.  
“Now, Ohen!”

The dragon gathers air into his throat, then releases a powerful inferno from deep within. He’s careful not to hit either of them, but puts a fiery barrier between them. This, effectively, puts an end to the fight and sends the dragons fleeing to the sky.

Ohen still has a hunger in his eyes. He’s growling under his breath and steam is escaping through his nostrils. His entire demented changes when he feels his master scratching right behind his ears.

“Good boy. Somebody has earned a free-ride”.

Ohen lets his tounge poke out as Carmilla continues to scratch. He tilts his head back to look at his rider and she thinks she can see a smile on his face. She smiles at the little whimper he gives when she moves her hand away from his favorite spot. Carmilla grabs onto the reigns and leans next to his ear.

“Ready to go?”

Ohen extends his wings, drops his body into a pounce position and waits for Carmilla’s command. She waits a moment, seeing if he’ll keep his focus, the she shouts “Up!” and he takes flight.

Ohen and Carmilla ascend into the clouds and over the lake. They come to a steady speed. Carmilla let’s go of the reigns and let’s Ohen take the wheel. He turns his head looking for approval. She smiles at him and gives him a small nod. Ohen roars and Carmilla knows what she’s in for.

Ohen starts to slow down, then in a blink of an eye he’s spiraling down towards the water head first. Just as he was about to splash into his own reflection, he makes a sharp upward arch, keeping himself just above the water. He takes off into another section of the forest, making sharp turns around trees and weaving his way through. He heads straight toward a large boulder. It looks like he’s about to collide with it, but at the last possible moment he pulls up, and crashes his way through the thick branches above. He gets high enough to see his position. (He has a habit of getting himself lost when he’s showboating). Not too much farther than where they are, he sees Camp Hastur and takes off, once again. This time it was all speed, no theatrics.

In almost no time, Ohen and Carmilla are back at the front gates of the camp. Both of them completely unscathed. Carmilla dismount her dragon and begins removing her reigns and saddle. She comes around to his face and starts running her hand over his snout. He makes a sound that is a cross between a growl and a kitten’s purr. He looks into her eyes, trying not to get to distracted by her current action. He lightly nudges her with his snout. Clearly he wants something. Carmilla catches on and answers his silent request.

“Score? Seven out of then.”

Ohen’s growl/purr turned into a sharp-toothed snarl. Carmilla lightly flicks his nose and stares him down.  
“Calm yourself. I gave it a seven because you used the same move twice. If you’re trying to shock me, you need to mix it up”.

Ohen rolls his eyes; something he learned from his trainer.  
Carmilla throws the saddle and reigns over her shoulder. She turns back toward the gates and taps the side of her leg, cueing Ohen to follow.

“Open the gates!” Carmilla yells loud enough for at least one of the dimwitted on the other side of the gates can hear her. It’s a mission accomplished when she can faintly hear two distinct voices coming closer.

“She said open, the gate, dude”.

“I heard her, you idiot!”

“Then get your ass in gear and open it!”

“WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE I’M DOING?”

The gates start to open. The creaking of the wood doors must have drown out the arguing. It’s never over that quickly.

Carmilla and Ohen enter the camp. Off to the side by the switch, Danny and Kirsch were, of course, still arguing.  
“Is your mission in life to show me how much of an ass you can be?”

“Maybe if you weren’t so uptight this wouldn’t be a problem!”

They erupt into a flurry of noises that, vaguely, sound like words.

Carmilla signals Ohen to stay. She marches over to them like she’s about to shove a boat up both their asses… and she just might.

She grabs them both by the tips of their chest plates and pulls their faces down to her level with very little effort. She wants to keep her voice down, so she speaks through gritted teeth.

“ I swear to god. If you two don’t shut up right now, I will use you both as bait on the next mission”. Carmilla lets go of Danby and Kirsch just to push them to the ground. She crouched down to look them in the eyes.

“Did you two forget we are surrounded by volition beasts who are looking for an excuse to misbehave. So could we please, get it together and keep the hate/love flirting at a minimum until we’re done training?”

Kirsch turns to look at Danny. She can see him in her peripheral but chooses not to actually look at his stupid face. Kirsch, trying to be the bigger an extends his hand.  
“Truce?”

Danny finally gives him the attention he was seeking and gives him a limp handshake.

“Truce”.

“What is going on down here? Are you guys trying to throw off the dragons nesting periods? Believe me. Nothing is scarier than angry mama dragons trying to brood”. LaFontaine emerges from the camps observation tower. They walk up to the trainers, clearly fed up, but trying to stay calm.

“Tell that to the children here”.

Danny and Kirsch are picking themselves off the ground giving twin glare to the vampire. LaF is trying really hard not to strangle the three of them. Even the strength of a werewolf, a vampire and a frat boy is nothing compared to LaFon-Pain! Instead they just sigh and rub their temples as they try to get their thoughts together.

“Look could you three just go play with your dragons or some-“ LaF’s eyes widen when they see that is sitting by the, still open gate and not in his containment.

“The dragon is out. Why is the dragon out?”

Everyone snapped their head back towards Ohen, who sat their shyly. Danny and Kirsch’s wide eyed gazes land on the gate. They look back at each other and scream, “You left the gate open!” before running over to close it. Ohen quietly sat there waiting to be carted off to containment.  
Carmilla calmly walks up to the dragon. She knows her dragon. There’s nothing to worry about. She pets the bridge of his nose and starts talking to him softly.

“Hey, baby. It’s okay. Let’s get you into you home”.

Ohen stands and follows Carmilla to his containment unit. Behind them they hear the creaking of the wood gates finally closing. They pass the habitats of other dragons on their way. Most of then sleeping, others were enjoying the amenities: playing in snow, bathing in lava, dwelling in a cave. Some were having trouble adapting. One in particular, a new Regal Copper, trying to use his body weight to break through the iron gates. Carmilla throws him a menacing scowl. He meets eyes with her and he stops. Her expression softens. “You’ll be free soon, big guy.” She knows having him trapped inside is not ideal, but it’s better than him dying out in the forest by some greedy dragon skinner.

Isn’t it?

Just a few units down was a habitat labeled, ‘Ohen the Jealous’ on a gold plaque. The iron gate was left open.  
“Alright. In you go, boy”.

He’s reluctant at first, but he gives in and heads straight to his smoldering cinders. He’s pretty predictable. Carmilla closes the gate behind him and taps on the bars to get his attention. He looks up long enough for her to smile at him. He runs over the bars and licks Carmilla’s fingers, then turns back and curls up onto his cinders. 

Carmilla walks away from the wait. She waves her arms over to Kirsch and Danny and they run over to her.

“Kirsch, did you get all of today’s dragons into the training arena?”

“Yep. All are accounted for”.

Danny moves ahead to unlock the arena doors. Carmilla can see the small hairs on the back of her neck begin to stand and her ears begin to form points. As Danny opens the door, Carmilla comes up behind her and Kirsch and places her hands on their backs.

“Let’s go, losers! We’ve got shit to do.” She roughly pushes her partners through the doors and off they went to work.

 

LaF watches as the trainers enter into the arena. They are out of their hair and doing some actual work. LaF climbs back up to the observation tower to finish their daily rounds. Their partner, Natalie, is taking notes on dragon she’s watching for its medical chart. She sees LaF coming in through the porthole.

“What was going on down there?”

“The usual. Danny and Kirsch argue. Carmilla falls into the trap. Chaos ensues”.

This earns a giggle from Natalie. “I guess its a good thing they train as well as they argue.” Her eyes were still focused on her subject.

LaF goes back to working on the tower’s lone computer. There was a map of Styria on the screen. They were keeping track of their recently rehabilitated attendees. A few seem to have left the area altogether, but the others have decided to stay in the deepest part of the forest. Of course LaF has tried to go see what is attracting the dragons to that area but they have yet to find anything out of the ordinary. Pretty disappointing for some one who like to “embrace the weird” and THAT was definitely weird.  
The tower is completely silent. LaF and Natalie immerse themselves into their work. Neither party minds the silence. It helps them get things done up there.  
It’s not like they don’t want to talk they just work off each other best in silence. But in actuality, these two were great friends. They had nearly every class together back at Silas University. 

When they were recruited to help with Camp Hastur, it was their idea to build the observation tower and take over the scientific responsibilities. Not like anyone wad was going to dispute.

Being up there with their peace and quiet was their way of showing respect. And considering how quiet it is, there is plenty of respect to go around.

LaF finishes their tracking, while Natalie has moved on to observing the next dragon. LaF walks over to Natalie and gently jabs her shoulder. She smiles and gives a nudge back without taking her eyes from the window overlooking the hatchling center. They see Perry being followed by six new hatchlings. From a distance they could be mistaken as ducklings.

LaF pushes their face up against the glass like a child at the zoo.

“Aww! How cute!”

“I’m going to assume you were talking about the dragons”.  
The glass starts to fog and Natalie can see LaF’s reddened complexion.

“I was… mostly.” They turn away from the window and there is Natalie making kiss faces at them.

“Can we be adults here, please?”

“LaF and Perry, sitting in a tree!”

“Could you not!”

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

“I thought the rule of the tower was to SHUT THE FUCK UP!” LaF takes off running after Natalie. She drops her chart and runs to get away from the raging redhead. The two run around in circles chasing each other and picking up objects to through at one another. It’s as if they have just come out of an old cartoon.

 

“Good, darlings. Stay in line. Follow auntie Perry!” The baby dragons are all in a single file line following their caretaker. It’s quite the miracle considering how wobbly most of them still are. The only one managing to keep his balance is the lines leader, a greyling. He’s copying Perry’s duck walk perfectly and staying very close to his surrogate mother.

Perry leads them around the track she had made for them (with LaFontaine help, of course). She then walks backwards to check on the little ones.

“Very good, you guys!” Perry’s using her high pitched “mom” voice. The hatchling seem to like it. Or at least they know they’ll get treats after their exercise, so they just put up with it. Regardless, Perry enjoys her job. Her eyes well up when the babies are old enough to reunite with their birth mothers. To be honest, the hatchlings don’t make it easy on her when it’s their time to go. Still, they time she gets to spend with them is always rewarding.

Perry walks the hatchlings around the track one last time, then lets the adorable little monsters freely roam around and play in the specially designed dragon playground (Again, thanks LaF). Perry leans against the wall closest to the doors to the medical center and watches as the hatchlings play with one another. She sees the little greyling trying to flap its wings. He gets about an inch off the ground before falling right on its face. Before Perry can even react, the hatchling picks itself up and goes on his way to play with his friends.

“You’ll get it next time, little guy”.

Sarah Jane appears from the med center doors. She had a chart in her hands and an excited smile on her face.  
“Hey, Perry! Good news. I was just at the incubator and it looks like we have another six hatchling that will be joining soon”.

Perry’s eyes widen and the corners of her lips begin to curl, but she didn’t want to give off how excited she actually was (It wasn’t working but she tried).

“And it looks like it’s the greyling’s turn for his physical tomorrow. If everything turns out fine, he’ll be with his mother by tomorrow. Then we can release them both by the end of the week!”

Perry wasn’t having trouble hiding the excitement anymore. It was gone.

“That’s… great SJ”.

Perry knew she should be happy for the little guy- that dragon is going places- but she couldn’t help it. It’s the curse of being a banshee. The attachments are hard, but not nearly as hard as the fatalities. 

SJ gives Perry a sad smile. She sees that face every single time she reports on a dragon. She hopes delivering the news will be like pulling off a band-aid, but it never seems to hurt any less. Perry appreciates the gesture, nonetheless.

“What do you say we get these guys back to bed and head to the arena and see the trainers get their asses kicked?”

“You know me too well”.

SJ waves her arms in the air, attempting to get LaF and Natalie’s attention. Perry looks up to the tower to see if it worked. Instead of seeing “quiet scientists”, she gets…  
“Umm… are they having a sword fight with dragon thermometers?”

“What? I’ve been looking for those! Well the joke’s on them. Those don’t go in their mouths”. Perry cringes and SJ bursts into laughter as she helps Perry corral the hatchlings.

 

Kirsch narrowly dodges a sad of ice coming his way.

“Bro, not cool!”

Kirsch has been trying to train a particularly defiant smok. Apparently, telling this dragon to ‘sit’ several times has its consequences. 

The dragon blows out more shards, one of which flies right over his head. 

“Dude!”

Off to the other side Danny and Carmilla have finished training their groups and are now spending time with their personal dragons.

“This isn’t fair! Why do you guys get to play with your pets?”

Mentally, Carmilla is rolling her eyes really hard, but she’s having too much fun with Barry, her gorynych to actually do it.

“Because YOU wanted to take the last dragon. All you have to do is get her to sit, then you can join us”.

“But it doesn’t want to sit!” A well aimed shard crashes on the ground right between his legs. “STOP!”

Danny joins into the conversation, her attention focused on her drake.

“You know, for someone who claims he can hang with us “supernaturals”, you’re doing a lot of whining”.  
……………………………………………………………

Perry and SJ watch the action in the viewing deck. They got their too late to see most of the training, but Kirsch is a show all on his own. LaF and Natalie come to join them. Natalie sits next to SJ and they temporarily get lost in their own world. LaF sees Perry and rushes over to sit next to her on the bench. They wrap their arm around her and Perry leans into it, resting her head on their shoulder. They start to caress her arm, and Perry seems to be enjoying the gesture… until she remembers.

Perry’s eyes widen as she slightly pulls away.

“Uhm… LaF? Did you wash your hands before coming over here?”

“Yea of course! Why… oh. You saw us with the rectal thermometers”.

“You knew what they were and you played with them anyway?”

“It was the heat of the moment, Per! Besides, they’re sterile”.

Perry arches an eyebrow but she believes it. She leans back to get comfortable in her original position.

LaF comments under their breath, “At least I hope so”.  
Perry smacks their leg and LaF let’s out a pained moan.  
…………………………………………………………....

“Sit”. The smok only stands there blankly staring at Kirsch. He straightens his stance, trying to make himself look tough. This time in a more commanding voice.

“Sit!”

The dragon outright refuses and turns away from him.  
“Ugh… come on!”

Carmilla looks over to Danny. Danny lets out a sigh and says, “Fine”. She holds up a hand signaling her dragon, Francis to stay as she walks over to Kirsch. 

“Move over. This requires a woman’s touch”. She, slowly, walks up to the smok, she keeps her defenses down and patiently waits as the dragon turns toward her. There they stand, face-to-face.

Danny, sweetly coos to the dragon, “Hey girl. Good girl”. She reaches out to pet her snout. Immediately, the dragon snaps at her hand. Danny jumps back and the smok takes the opportunity to move into her space.

Danny’s eyes start to glow a luminous yellow. Her claws coke out and the tips of her canines protrude from her mouth. Danny is not taking any of this dragons shit.  
The dragon holds her own and growls at the werewolf. Danny doesn’t even flinch. Instead she delivers a ground shaking roar. The smok spooks and tries to back up as quickly as possible. Danny takes her space back. 

“Sit.” Danny’s voice is frighteningly low and filled with the things nightmares are made of. The dragon stops in its tracks and immediately sits. 

Danny takes a deep breath and stops the full transformation from taking over. She puts her hand up once again and, with a whimper, the smoke lets Danny’s hand run across the bridge of her nose.

“Good girl”. Danny turns to Kirsch with her ego much more inflated and a smug expression. “Well look at that, Wilson. And it only took two minutes”.

Kirsch folds arms and scowls. If he wasn’t such a big guy, you’d think he was five.

“First of all, Lawrence; it’s Kirsch and you know that. Second, you used werewolf powers to scare her, and lastly it only took you such little time because she’s heard that command a million times from me already”.

“And yet, how many times has she actually listened to your command?”

Kirsch and Danny have come face to face, angrily staring each other down. The smok sees the opportunity to take her leave. Kirsch and Danny see her moving put of the corner of their eyes.

“SIT!” 

The smoke sits, not wanting to be scolded by mom and dad again.  
…………………………………………………………....  
Natalie is loving what she’s seeing from the feuding giants.

“This is exactly why we don’t need a T.V. in the quarters”.  
LaF speaks up from the other side of the bench. “They were entertaining for a while, but now it’s just getting old”. LaF looks down at Perry, who’s head was leaning on their shoulder.

“They should just make out already”.

Perry looks up at them and, of course they’re wiggling their eyebrows. She’s smiling and shaking her head at them. 

Natalie awkwardly coughs and they both look back over to see SJ eyes trained on the scene in front of her. Perry, right away, feels guilty for laughing.

“Sorry, sweetie. They didn’t mean it”.

“It’s fine. Seriously. I just don’t see what everyone else is seeing. They clearly can’t stand each other”.

“Of course they can’t”. Natalie jumps in to be supportive best friend. “Their relationship is purely… atomically platonic.”

“Did I just hear that come out of your mouth?” 

Natalie shrugs, “Maybe”.

Smiles are slowly creeping onto their faces as they look into others eyes.

“You’re a dork”.  
……………………………………………………………..

As Danny and Kirsch continue arguing Carmilla takes the walks over to the smok and to take her back to her unit. Everyone in the viewing deck has already left and the sun is getting lower in the sky. Okay, it was pretty low already but these two just won’t quit.

Carmilla locks up the smok. A few units over, she can hear the low whimpering of Ohen. Then, she got an idea.  
Back inside the arena, the two dimwitted were still bickering, until they heard the holding chamber open behind them. There was Carmilla and Ohen along with Kirsch’s Hungarian horntail, Grater and her drake, Tess. Carmilla whistles and points right next to her and Francis and Barry make their way toward her, running between Danny and Kirsch in the process.

“Hey, lovebirds, go get mom and the nerds. We’re going riding”.  
…………………………………………………………....

Everyone saddles up and meets the gates. The dragons and trainers are suited up. Carmilla, Danny and Kirsch were all on their respective dragons. SJ and Natalie hopped onto Tess and, LaF called dibs on Barry, with a reluctant Perry holding tightly onto their waist. Something about heights and three headed dragons makes her uneasy.

No matter how many times these guys went out with their dragons, the air always seemed to be filled with exhilaration and anticipation. Their excited chatting mixed with the delighted roars and snorts of their scaly children. Even Danny and Kirsch were on more “friendly” terms. Carmilla and Ohen take their place in front of the pack and the noise settles. It’s time.

“Let’s get into formation”.

Everyone moves their dragons into ‘V’ formation: Danny and Francis stood to Carmilla’s left with SJ, Natalie, and Tess behind them. Kirsch and Grater stood to the right with LaF, Perry, and Barry rounding them out.

Carmilla looks behind her and can see the eagerness in everyone’s eyes. Most notably, Danny.

“Cone on fangs. We’re not getting any younger here”.

“But some of us are not getting any older, either”.

All the way in the back, LaF is getting impatient. 

“Can we go now? I wanna go riding and these dragons need to get to bed soon”.

With that, Carmilla calls out.

“Ready”, The dragons get into their flight stance. All the trainers grasp tightly onto their reins. Perry’s bear hug is nearly crushing LaF at this point.

“Go!” And into the sky they want, full speed ahead. 

They flew over the lake and admired how the setting sun made the water look like an abstract painting. For the moment, the world seemed calmer. Even the dragons in the distance were taking in the still beauty of it all. Some of them had come pit of the forest to rest by the lake.  
But, of course, things don’t stay like that for long.

Kirsch moves in to have Grater nudge Ohen. Carmilla gains control then flips him the bird. Kirsch send her a faux innocent smile. She shakes her head, then returns her attention to their path.

Kirsch pulls back out of Carmilla’s peripheral. He waves over to Danny to get her attention. She looks over and he’s pointing at Carmilla. A mischievous smile finds a place between her cheeks. They both look back toward LaF and the girls. All of them sharing the same troublemakers’ smile. Except Perry. She isn’t really in favor of what’s about to go down.

Kirsch moves back up to his spot, getting a very close to Carmilla this time.

“Puppy, I swear-“

“DRAG RACE!!!”

Kirsch and Grater fly off at top speed. Soon after the other dragons follow, leaving Carmilla and Ohen behind. The were both dumbfounded. They should have expected this. Ohen looks up at her, expectantly. Carmilla tightens her grip on the reins, and in a strong voice, she commands “Get ‘em”. He takes off without even thinking twice.

By nightfall all of the riders are landing back in front of the camp gates. SJ and Natalie, unexpectedly, are the first ones back. Natalie a good sport about it. SJ however…

“Aww yea! Come at us, suckas! The scientists beat the trainers!” She dismounts Tess to show off her victory dance. Carmilla walks up to her and she stops right in her tracks.

“I think you’ve forgotten who trained that dragon”. She punctuated the drawl with a smirk. “Besides, Tess did all the work”. SJ and Carmilla stand no more than an inch a part. SJ didn’t know what to expect. This girl doesn’t take being offended well.

SJ finches when she sees Carmilla extending her hand. When she looks back, the hand is open and welcoming. SJ goes in for the handshake. They finally let go and Carmilla shrugs.

“Hey, a win is a win”. Behind them, LaF has already opened the gates and is leading Barry inside. Everyone follows, leading their dragons along to get into their units. Natalie has already gone ahead. Carmilla turns back to SJ, her expression less… abrasive.

“Mind taking her in?”

SJ smiles and nods and leads Tess into the gates.

Carmilla gently pets Ohen on the snout then starts to lead him to his unit. They walk inside. Other than the clanking of the iron gates and the soft growl of the dragons, it’s quiet. The dragons are all going to sleep and the trainers are headed to their quarters.

Carmilla opens Ohen gate and tries to usher him in, but he comes to a sudden halt.

“Ohen, what’s wrong?”

He turns back and looms up to the sky. Carmilla tries to follow his line of sight, but can’t see anything. She looks back to Ohen. Still looking out into the distance, he draws his mouth back into a snarl.

“What are you looking at?”

She turns back. This time she sees something moving toward them. It’s hard to tell from the distance what it is, but it’s moving fast.

Ohen growling is growing louder and the object appears to be getting circling. Carmilla can’t take her eyes of it.  
“Hey, guys look at this!”

LaF and the others come to gather around Carmilla and Ohen.

“Any of you know what it is?”

“It’s obviously a dragon”. Everyone turns to LaF with confused stares. “What? We work with these guys all the time. How can you guys not tell?” They point at the ‘apparent dragon’, “See? There’s the wings, it’s pretty large and I think I see horns?”

They turn to look at everyone behind them, “Dragon. Dragon. Dragon? Right? Looks like a white drake . That’s very rare!”

Natalie notices the dragon is flying toward them and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.  
“Um, maybe we should head for cover”.

Everyone looks back and the dragon is lowering itself down toward the camp. Before anyone can react, the dragon fires scattered fireballs through the camp. Everyone jumps out of the way, becoming separated and narrowly escaping one of the blast. Ohen covers himself with his wings to avoid the flames.

The drake is back to circling around the camp, attempting to destroy everything it has its eyes on. It’s main targets being the dragons’ containment units. 

“Oh, god, the hatchlings!” Perry runs toward the hatchling center. 

“PERRY!” SJ and LaF run after her, but catch the eye of the Dragon in the process. It takes in breath and prepares to blow more fire down. LaF tries calling out to Perry once again.

Perry has made it to the hatchlings’ door. She looks up to see the dragon flying over her. Before the dragon can release the flames, Perry releases a blood-curdling scream. SJ and LaF stop and cover their ears. The dragon flies higher up to try and escape the painful noise.  
“LaF, SJ! Let’s go!”

The two pull themselves together and run into the hatchling center. Perry shuts the door behind them.  
……………………………………………………………..

Bad news: The dragon has set the observation tower on fire. 

Even worse news: The primary fire extinguishing system is controlled from there. 

Oh no.

Natalie knows she’s not getting up there, but this fire is getting out of control. Her last hope is the back up extinguisher switch inside the quarters… which is also on fire. Without any other options, Natalie runs into the quarters. She’s pushing through flames, smoke and debris trying to get to the Main Room. She makes it in and smashes the glass covering the switch. When she pulls the switch, the extinguisher is activated and extinguisher foam is released from the pipes running throughout the camp, suffocating the flames. She runs back outside to check the rest of the camp. They extinguishers seem to all be on full power.  
……………………………………………………………..

Danny and Kirsch run to release their dragons. Carmilla mounts Ohen and they all take to the air. The drake may have been slowed down by Perry’s scream only made it angrier. The riders fly over to the dragon, attempting to stop it from causing anymore damage.

Danny and Carmilla fly ahead o get Ohen and Francis close enough to hit the dragon with their breath powers. The drake claws and snaps at the riders. Grater tries to snap back with her razor teeth, but she’s can’t get close enough to lay a bite. They’re flying around trying to avoid being knocked out of the air. The dragon maneuvers quickly, protecting it’s week spot whenever it seems Carmilla and Danny have an opening. It blows fireballs at them to put distance between them, while the dragon plans its next move. 

Danny shouts over to Carmilla, “This drake is way too smart! We need a diversion!”

And right on que Kirsch and Grater sneak up behind the menacing dragon. Grater opens her mouth and chimps down onto its tail. The dragon hisses in pain and exposes it’s neck. Danny and Carmilla seize the opportunity.  
“Now!” Carmilla sounds her command and Francis and Ohen blow their combined blasts at the beast’s neck, leaving a large mark. 

The dragon knows it’s weakened. It swings its tail throwing Kirsch and Grater at what remains of the tower. Grater makes the save and stabilizes her flying before they can hit anything.

“That’s my girl, Grater!”

The drake has already turned to leave the camp grounds. It’s rapidly flying away from the scene of destruction, but Carmilla thinks she and Ohen can catch it.

“Danny, I need you and Kirsch to stay here and make sure everyone is alright and keep the dragons calm. I’m going after it”.

“Be careful out there, fang face”. 

Carmilla nods and the two go their separate ways.

“Let’s go, Ohen”. They fly off into the path of the drake. It has a significant lead, but it has slowed down enough for Ohen and Carmilla to keep track of it.

 

They follow the dragon as it flies over the forest. It starts to lower itself over the trees before taking a sharp dive down into the sea of green a particularly thick area.  
Carmilla brings Ohen down by the edge of the woods. When they land, she dismount her dragon, deciding to follow on foot. 

“Head back to the camp, Ohen. This part of the forest is way to thick for you to spread your wings. The drake is probably having a hard time, itself”. 

Ohen roars his disagreement and concern for his rider.  
“It’s okay”. She gives him a reassuring smile. “I’m immortal, remember? Nothing is going to hurt me”.

Although he’s not completely on board, Ohen gives Carmilla a gentle nudge then takes to the sky, once again. She watches as her dragon disappears into the darkness. When she can no longer see him any longer, she turns to travel into the forest.

The trees are blocking out the light of the moon. If it weren’t for the vampire’s enhanced senses she’d be screwed. Even with her vampire sight, she still is not very confident about this solo mission. She may be immortal, but that all comes to an end with the bite of a dragon.  
No pressure though.

Carmilla continues to blindly walk in the same direction. She hasn’t seen any tracks or broken branches and the forest is shockingly silent. She’s too far into the forest to turn back. The only way to go is forward, which is not much better. Especially when she finds herself falling straight into a deep hole, and onto her ass.

To make matters worse, she has come face-to-face with the snarling white drake.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Carmilla is too busy mentally punching herself in the face to actually be effected by the imminent danger she’s in.  
“Well do your worst. Four centuries was long enough”.  
The dragon just continues to bare it’s razor sharp teeth, but doesn’t lunge for the kill. Carmilla’s eyebrow perks up, curiously.

“Uh… hello? Delicious dinner… right here”.

The dragon continues to growl and hiss, this time jerking forward slightly, but makes no progress. And that’s when Carmilla sees it. The dragon is stuck in a very narrow cave. She starts laughing uncontrollably. 

“Holy shit! How did you get yourself stuck, you idiot?” Carmilla continues to laugh loudly.

The dragon has no choice but to sit there and stare. No more snarling, just pouting.

Carmilla sees the dragons face and it’s sad piercing, golden eyes. Her laughing dies down. Her conscience gets the best of her.

“Relax. In a few hours, it should be day break. Well find some way to get you out of there and get back to the camp, whether you take like it of not. Until then, we’re camping out in this hole”.

The drake doesn’t show any sign of agreement, but then again it is immobile so Carmilla takes the dragons calm restraint from blowing a fireball at her as a reluctant agreement.

Carmilla leans her back against the wall closest to her. Her eyes stay trained on the dragon. The dragon does the same. The tension between them, is enough to bury them both in that hole.

They go through most of their time trying not to take their eyes off of each other. As the hours pass, both of their eyelids get heavier and their bodies grow more tired. In their efforts to keep the upper hand over their rival, both parties finally let the exhaustion take over.  
……………………………………………………………..

Carmilla is awoken to a loud roar coming from above her. Ohen has found her and had come to rescue her. 

She looks up at her faithful companion, a smile gracing her tired face. “That’s my boy!” Carmilla reaches put for Ohen to rescue her. She pulls back when she remembers her trapped prisoner.

Carmilla turns behind her to find that the dragon is no longer blocking the path of the cave. In its place was a small, dirty blonde girl sleeping on the cave floor.

“What the…?”

Ohen grunts softly, trying to figure out what’s going on down there.

“Stay. I’ll be there in a second”. 

Carmilla walks over to the girl and crouched down to check her pulse. She was still very much alive, but breathing slowly. She takes a look at the narrow cave. No dragon tracks, no claw marks, no cracks in the cave walls. There was absolutely no way that dragon could have escaped.

She looks back down at the girl. She notices something on her neck: A large wound was plastered across. Possibly a third degree burn. Upon further inspection, the girls knees and elbows are covered in white scales, that are slowly fading into pale smooth skin.

Carmilla’s jaw drops. “No way”.

 

The girl finally begins to awaken. The ground below her is much more solid than she remembers. When her eyes focus, she sees she is surrounded by stone walls. She has no idea what’s going on and begins to panic. She walks backward into iron bars. She turns to see the entire crowd of people she has managed to piss off. She recognizes the vampire, immediately.

She speaks to the group, panic lacing her voice, “Where am I?” She thinks that playing dumb will possibly save her.  
The vampire speaks trying to keep a cool tone. “You know exactly where you are. And right now, we’re the ones asking the questions. Who are you?”

The girl doesn’t answer. The vampire comes closer to the gate l, this time baring her fangs. “I asked you a question. Who. Are. You?”

The girl takes a large gulp, swallowing the little bit of pride she has left.

“Laura. My name is Laura”.


	2. Just an announcement

Hey everyone who took an interest to this story. I'm sorry it's been so long since you've heard from me. Life and writer's block definitely took its toll on me this past year. But with the ending of season 3 and the announcement or the FREAKING MOVIE I've gotten my second wind and I'm ready to write again. Now it won't be a direct continuation of 'this' particular story, but a revamp. We're starting from scratch and it'll be better both for your reading enjoyment, and for my own personal enjoyment writing it. The revamp chapter will be out in two weeks. I'll keep this one up so any newcomers can get a gist of what's going on and of course read this announcement. Thank you everyone who supported this story and I hope to still have your support in the future with this new project.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed that and are eager to see what happens next! Feel free to leave a comment and send me asks on tumblr: deetom
> 
> P.s. if you're wondering what some of these dragons look like, you can always ask :) or Google them, whatever floats your boat.


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